Binding Fate

Incursion

Nick was waiting outside of the house he and Juliette shared, pondering whether or not to go inside. Lately, he had been pondering over the differing advice given to him by both his aunt and his mother; the former's advice was proving to be more reasonable than the latter. How could he drag Juliette further into the life he now leads? Despite her still being in the dark the threats he faced still managed to reach her. Now, he was going into an entire organization whose sole purpose was to maintain the peace between Grimms, Wesen, and humans wherever need be. Nick wanted to be a part of the cause but at the same time, he wanted a life, he wanted someone to come home to.

The detective got out of his car and approached the house, his heart was pounding, lungs felt strained. He was just about to knock when the door opened, Juliette standing in the doorway.

"Nick, hi. I–I wasn't sure you coming."

"Sorry, I was caught up with something."

"Right, Hank said that you were working  in federal investigations now, how's that going?" Juliette said awkwardly, trying to ease the tensions.

"Pretty well, met some new people, and reconnected with an old one."

"Right, Veronica Donovan, how is she?"

"She's great, still the same person I knew, but more open."

"That's nice," Juliette took note of how pale Nick looked, his discomfort was evident. "Well, dinner's gone cold so I'll just start heating it."

...

Veronica was sitting at her desk going over the local detainment operation. Such a procedure were some of the more clandestine activities of the organization; if Wesen who tended to play puppetmaster over humans, such as Hexenbiests, Ziegevolk, or in this case a Musai, caused catastrophic mishaps and couldn't be pinned to the crimes then they would be apprehended using covert snatch-&-grab tactics and sent to a black site designed to imprison Wesen and other unnatural individuals, essentially a supernatural Guantanamo Bay. Many were established across the world, only known to a selected few.

The huntress couldn't focus on the paperwork in front of her, she was focused on Nick's date with Juliette. She'd been in his position before, life as a Grimm taking over whatever normalcy you have and leaving nothing left. Whatever trace of a normal life she once held had been stripped away. Since female Grimms developed their powers sooner Veronica had been groomed by her parents to adapt to such things. Whereas Nick's life is repeatedly slapping him in the face.

Veronica also felt a nagging feeling that she shouldn't have let Nick go on his date, that his being there would do more harm than good to himself.  At the same time she knew where he was coming from, the desire to hold on to and fight for a sense of peace; it was a feeling she knew all too well. In the end, she had been left behind, abandoned, without a word or heads up; just a note when it was too late to do anything. She didn't want the same for Nick, but it wasn't her place to interfere.

Yet, the huntress strongly desired to do so.

...

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" asked Nick, not wanting to spend any time on small talk.

"Oh—okay, right to the point," responded the veterinarian, not quite ready for such bluntness. "Well, I know that we haven't been on the best or closest terms lately and I know that I haven't been treating you very fairly..."

Juliette froze once she saw that Nick wasn't paying much attention to her apology, he had been looking around the room; studying it as if he had never been there before. The veterinarian subtly approached him from behind, he was studying a picture of them together; it was next to the spot where his denied proposal took place. He had a contemplative look on his face, suffice to say it wasn't very nostalgic.

"Nick–"

"I can't do this." His words were clear, but his voice was broken.

"What do mean?"

"You don't know what you'd be getting yourself into." Nick's facial expression and eyes matched the pain in his voice. "I can't keep this up. I can't cause any more harm to you."

"Let's just talk about this–"

The detective went for the door. Juliette could only watch as Nick left.

...

Dorian watched from the roof of the building neighboring the Prince's hotel. The watcher recorded the dinner meeting between the brothers and listened in on their conversation. Dorian dialed Director Raymond's secured line.

"Sir, the Royal's aren't just making a play for Burkhardt, they're here for the Key."

"Call Veronica Donovan, tell her the situation, and tell her to find Burkhardt."

The Director hung up and with that Dorian prepared to mobilize.

...

Nick had just arrived at Watcher Headquarters after Hank told him about the massive incursion of zombies the Grimm ordered an assault team to search for the Cracher-Mortel. He called the director, informing him of the situation, and was ordered to report to the conference room. He ran into Veronica on the way there.

"Hey, the key that Raymond mentioned. Is it secure?" asked the huntress.

Nick responded by showing her the chain around his neck where the key rested.

"A Cracher-Mortel, a walking zombie maker, I read a little about them when Hank called me earlier today."

"We're working on having state troopers, the Oregon Civil Defense Force, and the National Guard augment the PPB." Veronica looked at Nick, blatantly displaying concern over him all while trying to keep him at ease. "Don't worry about your friends, Ops is having tact teams look after them."

"They wouldn't be in any danger if it weren't for me."

Veronica grabbed Nick, putting them both to a halt.

"Hey, this isn't your fault, all of the things are out of our control."

"They don't deserve all the risks and dangers that come with being associated with me."

"They chose this," Veronica held up a finger before Nick could say another word. "They willingly joined our ranks."

Nick, knowing how useless it would be to argue with his old friend, remained silent. With that, the pair continued to the briefing.